1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the control and removal of oils in hydrocarbons spells. More particularly, the present invention relates to subsea systems for containing and removing pollutants from the subsea environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems for deploying booms so that the boom resides on the mudline.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
Accidental oil spills frequently occur in navigable bodies of water. Such oil spills often kill a substantial quantity of both land and marine life as the water is polluted and beaches are covered with the resulting oil slick. The resulting environmental damage tends to be devastating in scope and long-lasting in duration.
Oil spills typically occur as a result of either a rupture on an underwater pipeline or on an offshore oil rig or as a consequence of a catastrophic occurrence upon an oil transporting vessel. Ocean currents and winds may carry the oil spill for great distances, occasionally exceeding 1000 miles, where it is ultimately washed up on a beach.
Water vessels, such as tankers and barges, provide cost-effective means for transporting industrial quantities of bulk chemicals, such as oil, for great distances. Such vessels commonly transport quantities of oil in the order of millions of gallons. Thus, the potential devastation caused by the inadvertent release of such chemicals from the transport vessel is well recognized. Money damages can easily run into billions of dollars. Injury to wildlife and the environment is potentially irreparable.
Such oil spills spread quickly, moved by the wind and ocean currents. Therefore, they must be contained rapidly, before reaching a size that makes containment impossible. Contemporary practice is to contain the oil slick by surrounding it with a floating barrier, commonly known as an oil boom. After the oil boom has contained the oil slick, various means may be utilized to disperse, destroy, or collect the oil. Various chemicals may be utilized to cause the oil to break up, dissolve, and/or sink to the bottom of the water. The use of such chemicals for making the oil miscible in water thus appears to alleviate the oil spill. However, the oil is merely spread throughout the water such that it may eventually cause even greater environmental damage. The preferable course of action is to collect the oil so as to remove it from the sea.
Unfortunately, the use of sinking agents as a oil spill control method merely causes the pollutants to sink to the mudline. Ultimately, because of currents in the body of water, the sunken pollutants can migrate to undesired locations. Extensive environmental damage can be caused by the sunken pollutants. Additionally, certain types of pollutants will have a density that is greater than the water. As such, they will inherently sink toward the mudline. As such, a need has developed so as to effectively control and remove the sunken oil pollutants from the mudline.
Contemporary oil booms have a plurality of partitions or fence-like sections which float upon the surface of the water and extend a short distance below the surface in an attempt to contain the oil spill within a defined area. Unfortunately, contemporary oil spill containment and recovery systems are slow to deploy, comparatively ineffective at containing the oil spill, relatively labor-intensive in their deployment and operation, and relatively inefficient and expensive to operate. Thus, contemporary oil containment and recovery systems suffer from substantial deficiencies which detract from their overall effectiveness and desirability. As such, it is desirable to provide a means for containing, removing and storing sunken oil spills which can be rapidly transported to the spill site, quickly set up, and efficiently operated.
In the past, various patents have issued with respect to oil spill containment systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,821, issued on Mar. 30, 1993 to Cain et al., describes an emergency, lightweight marine containment system that is comprised of a containment crate in which it is flatly accordion-folded in an uninflated boom curtain. The boom curtain is comprised of a self-inflating flotation chamber on one longitudinal edge with an integral depending curtain terminating in a self-inflating ballast chamber on the opposing longitudinal edge. The flotation chamber is inflated by gas in the ballast chamber or is inflated by the water or seawater into which the boom curtain is disposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,296, issued on Jul. 12, 1994 to Lahar et al., provides an oil spill containment system that has a deployable flotation collar and an apron apparatus that automatically surrounds the periphery of the vessel to be contained. The collar is stored in a gunnel above the deck and is lowered into the water by a gear or spring-torsion driven pivot arms that lift the collar from the deck area and up and over the gunnel. The collar is inflated after lowering over the gunnel, encircling the entire vessel and giving vertical support to an attached apron. The top edge of the apron is maintained level with the surface of the oil spill by means of the attached inflatable collar.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,455, issued on Dec. 13, 1994 to Tarca et al., discloses a boom assembly that is carried on board a vessel for automatic deployment around the vessel to contain an oil spill. The boom assembly comprises an inflatable tube supporting a skirt that has a bottom edge which is weighted by a weight. The boom assembly is stored in an uninflated folded form in an elongate member which serves as the deck handrail of the vessel. The tubes are connected to a source of pressurized air via airlines. The capsule has hinged sections which are normally sealed. Upon inflation of the tubes, the seal is broken by expansion of the tubes and the hinged sections open to automatically deploy the boom assembly around the vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,467, issued on Nov. 28, 1995 the W. T. Soule, provides an oil spill containment and recovery system for confining and collecting oil spills. The oil spill is surrounded and contained within a floating barrier and the oil is pumped from within the enclosure defined by the floating barrier into floating reservoirs proximate the barrier. The floating barrier utilizes an elongate inflatable buoyant member and an elongate suction conduit depending downwardly from the buoyant member and having a plurality of apertures formed therein through which oil flows into the suction member. The inflatable member is inflated with care to obtain the desired buoyancy. The weight depends downwardly from the suction conduit to maintain the buoyant member and suction conduit in a desired orientation to facilitate containment and collection of the oil spill. The buoyant member is collapsible into a substantially flat configuration such that the floating barrier and conduit can be wrapped around a reel in a compact manner which facilitates storage and transportation thereof. A pump in fluid communication with the suction conduit effects oil flow from the suction conduit to a centrifuge which separates water from the collected oil. The oil is then pumped to a floating reservoir proximate the floating barrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,575, issued on Apr. 18, 1995 to C. W. Vinsonhaler, discloses an oil spill cleanup and recovery system that comprises a two-part sorbent pad having a flat, chemically-treated polyethylene foam inner core completely surrounded by a flexible, durable, chemically-treated polypropylene fabric cover. The sorbent pad floats on top of the petroleum-covered water to rapidly soak up the petroleum or oil and hold it within the inner core until it can be removed by squeezing the sorbent pad between rollers, thereby depositing the oil into a container for storage. The non-petroleum-laden sorbent pad is then returned to the surface of the petroleum-covered water to pick up more petroleum. The sorbent pad is chemically treated to increase the pad's ability to attract and hold oil by both adsorption and absorption and to further increase its ability to repel water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,832, issued on Jul. 9, 1996 the H. W. Dugger, shows an oil spill containment and recovery system which comprises the circumventing of an offshore spill with multiple containment float/recovery trough sections for collecting the spilled petroleum from the surface of the water. The water and petroleum mixture is transferred from the collection trough by a heavy-duty pump to a separation tank and, upon separation from the water, the recovered petroleum is transferred to a storage tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,739,801, issued on May 25, 2004 to H. P. Dreyer, shows a boom curtain with zipper connections and a method of assembling the boom curtain. The modular boom curtain sections include zipper elements for connection of adjacent modular boom curtain sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,927, issued on Feb. 15, 2005 to K. Miyazaki, discloses a containment boom capable of functioning as a barrier for containment of oil spills. The containment boom comprises a plurality of float units and a coupling portion by which adjacent float units are coupled to one another. Each of the float units comprises a housing having an oil-shielding surface perpendicular to a sea level, a float portion having a buoyant force, and a plummet portion positioned under the float portion. The float portion and the plummet portion are adjusted so as to locate a water line to an approximately middle position of the vertical length of the oil shielding surface. The coupling portion is a flexible coupling portion for varying a relative position between the adjacent float units.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,398,334, issued on Mar. 19, 2013 to R. Doyle, describes a self-positioning subsea oil spill containment system for retaining spills in a body of water. The containment system remains in a submerged position for continuous monitoring and is deployed at the surface when activated for containment purposes. A vertically-retractable barrier is configured to encircle an infrastructure. A ballast system is coupled to the barrier. The ballast system is adapted to be submerged to a target depth upon receiving submerging signals and the surface upon receiving surfacing signals. A deployment control system is in operative communication with the ballast system. The deployment control system is configured to send submerging signals to employ the ballast system to submerg to a standby depth for extended periods of nominal operating conditions and send surfacing signals to employ the ballast system to surface upon spill conditions. A self-propulsion system is provided for containment system position management and an access gate for emergency vessel passage.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0087731, published on Apr. 12, 2012 to A. R. Packham, shows an oil retention boom for retaining oil on the surface of the body of water. The boom includes a sensor for detecting the oil and electronic circuitry coupled with the sensor.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that provides underwater mudline booming capabilities that are not currently available.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that is economical and efficient for underwater heavy oil and chemical containment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that utilizes conventional surface booming technologies and deployment equipment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that avoids entrapment of marine life.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that has the ability to monitor effectiveness once deployed.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that can be rapidly deployed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that can be used in depths of water of up to 500 feet.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that can be used in weather conditions up to four knots.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a subsea booming system that is configured to capture, contain, diver, deflect or exclude subsea pollutants.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.